As I was reading today’s news about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico one of the paragraph’s caught my attention as I applied the sentiments to the people of Sderot and to the town it’s self. The question was asked… “Are people there worried about the media’s attention staying focused on the story?” The answer…

”I don’t think they fear the attention waning yet, because the media are all still here. But I think they do fear that in time, if the oil is stopped at the well by BP, that the media will go away and leave them to deal with all the other problems that will still be here.”

It has been quiet in Sderot for the most part over the past year, the TV crews have long since gone, and there are rarely articles in the paper any more. Pinkes still has the picture of himself and then senator Obama in a frame on the wall. Senator Obama made a trip to Sderot as did senator McCain during their presidential race of 2008. In the newspaper clip Pinkes keeps, Obama promised him that if he won the election he would have Pinkes to the white house; that hasn’t happened yet.

Sderot and Louisiana have a few things in common right now. They both have taken a blow to their livelihood and their economy, promises have and will be made by politicians that may or may not come to pass, the TV crews have and will leave for the next big breaking story and the people will indeed be left with tar balls and pot holes, lost jobs and wages.

Both Sderot and Louisiana were affected by outside forces and have been left behind in the path of destruction. The advantage Louisiana has over Sderot is the lack of anti- Semitism. The country will rally, there will be benefit concerts and fund raising events, volunteers will come to help and the politicians will send money to the affected areas because it is an election year.

Sderot on the other hand because she is part of Israel will see boycott and one negative report after another and this tiny country and even tinier city will be left alone to deal with a world that is slowly turning it back on them, its pot holes and tar balls.